He is taking some questions at the end. Each person is allowed one question (and none of them can be about fan fiction)?
What is the one question you just have to have an answer to?
Is it something to do with a case?
Something about his private life?
Is it going to be about Irene Adler?
Is it going to be about Watson?
This would be your chance. What would it be?
You only have one question: it better be good! I can imagine an earlier generation of Sherlockians asking "Cambridge or Oxford?" I can imagine some of the newest ones asking "Gay or straight?" Since I would want a long, detailed answer I'd ask. "Please give a true, detailed account of your activities during the Great Hiatus." With three years to cover, I'd expect the reply to be at least a couple of hours long.
ReplyDeleteOkay, good question, but I'm gonna get another pint before he starts. I won't want to get up once he does.
DeleteMy question: "Did you not feel any qualms about setting BSIs on the trail of murderers/thieves and especially Cartwright on Dartmoor?".
ReplyDeleteB2B.
That would put a new twist on things.
DeleteGood question.
I would have had more qualms about Cartwright than the others I guess.
DeleteI think B2B's question is interesting, too, and one I've thought a bit about. Such a question imposes our present day mores against Victorian attitudes. The street arabs of Holmes' day were children who lived on London's mean streets who came from broken homes (if they had homes) who may have engaged in petty crimes to survive. Education ("The Board schools." "Lighthouses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules, with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future"). would have been a dream beyond reach for many. The best they could hope for is a job as a child laborer--and not as a boy in buttons or a tween maid--but working in a factory were injury or death was common. Holmes on doubt felt he was helping the Irregulars out by giving the good pay for honest labor doing things they were already doing anyway. Their street skills would have severed them well in their search for the Aurora and tailing duties. As for Cartwright, I doubt he was in any danger from Selden, Stapleton or the hound. He probably had a greater chance of being rundown on London's streets and the fresh air of Dartmoor was beneficial.
ReplyDeleteIt is always fun to imagine that Holmes in some way, like you said, helped them get a better life. But other than the money he occasionally provided for errands, their circumstances probably didn't improve.
DeleteI like to think Holmes influenced them by example and by showing them that there was more to life than living on the streets by your wits.
ReplyDeleteWe hope that would be the case.
Delete